DeKalb lawsuit alleges breach of contract in Intrenchment Creek land swap

DeKalb County on Thursday filed a lawsuit alleging that two limited liability companies associated with the founder of a local film studio breached a land-exchange contract with the county involving Intrenchment Creek Park.

The allegation stems from a land-swap agreement finalized in January 2021, under which the county traded about 40 acres of its property in Intrenchment Creek Park for roughly 53 adjacent acres owned by Blackhall Real Estate Phase II LLC.

Blackhall had said it wanted to expand Blackhall Studios’ operations and that the best place to do so was on the land it got from DeKalb, according to the complaint in DeKalb County Superior Court.

As part of the transaction, Blackhall agreed to perform improvements worth $1.5 million to the land it gave the county and to other property owned by DeKalb, according to County Attorney Terry Phillips.

The improvements included signage for the newly renamed “Michelle Obama Park”; relocation of an airstrip for radio controlled aircraft; installation of trails; environmental enhancements; a trailhead development on Bouldercrest Road; a new trail with a boardwalk and overlook of Intrenchment Creek; and a pedestrian crossing on Bouldercrest Road, according to the lawsuit.

The agreement also called for Blackhall to donate $100,000, which the county would use to acquire green space before completion of the park improvements.

“Those obligations have not been met,” Phillips said at a news conference Thursday.

The lawsuit names as defendants Blackhall Real Estate Phase II LLC and Blackhall Capital Partners I LLC. The complaint identifies Ryan Millsap as “the principal ultimately behind Blackhall, Capital and Blackhall Studios.”

An email to Millsap seeking comment on the lawsuit was not returned Thursday. An attorney for Blackhall also did not respond to an email or voicemail seeking comment.

A few months after the land swap agreement was finalized, in April 2021, Millsap announced the sale of Blackhall Studios.

In December 2020, however, Millsap sold his interest “in the complex that housed the studios that Blackhall had represented Blackhall Studios wanted to expand as part of the agreement,” prior to execution of the land-swap agreement and without DeKalb’s knowledge, according to the lawsuit.

The county had thought the expansion would be an economic boon for residents. It is asking for “damages in an amount to be proved at trial.”

Blackhall also agreed the public could continue using the land it received from DeKalb — including the park and open trail areas — until Blackhall started building a studio on the property, the lawsuit says. No studio has been built.

In 2022, Blackhall started removing a number of trees and park pathways on the land it received from the county and, after doing so, “restricted the public’s right to use the land,” the lawsuit adds.

In March 2023, Michael Thurmond, who was DeKalb’s chief executive officer at the time, issued an executive order closing Intrenchment Creek Park for safety reasons after the Georgia Bureau of Investigation found multiple traps — including boards with nails protruding from them — around the park.

The park is near the site of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, which drew protesters from across the country. Thurmond said employees could not inspect the park because “they were attacked with rocks and other objects.”

Under the land-swap agreement, Blackhall also agreed to provide internships or partnerships with the DeKalb County School District and entertainment industry programming for young people at the Gresham Park Recreation Center. That also has not happened, the lawsuit says.